The Friend Who Wasn't There
by april.wahlin
Summary: A latch ket kid finds a strange new friend who opens her eyes to a new world.
1. The Friend Who Wasn't There (1)

The Friend That Wasn't There - World of Ithiria  
By April Wahlin  
Edited by Travis Noble

Yesterday upon the stair,  
I met a man who wasn't there.  
He wasn't there again today,  
Oh, how I wish he'd go away… -Hughes Meams

Simone rolled over in bed onto a discarded snack box, accidentally grinding crumbs and sugar into the bed spread. Mom isn't going to be happy. She moaned as she brushed the mess off the bed. Having done a so-so job, she went back to flipping through cartoon channels. Nothing on. Suppose she could read a book to fight the boredom―but why when there's TV? Boredom or not, reading a book is for people without electricity. There had to be something on.

With a free hand, Simone fidgeted with her wristband. Sliding her thumb across the barcode. It was from yesterday's visit. Just an asthma attack―nothing out of the norm…but still. She glanced out the window again. Dusk and an empty driveway. Her parents should have been home by now. She wished they would take her out like they used to. Dinner, movies, Disneyland…anywhere besides a hospital.

Simone finally settled on a station when something passed in the hallway outside her door.

"Mom?" she called.

No answer.

Simone glanced out the window again. Had her parents parked on the street instead of the driveway?

The boards in the hallway creaked with the pressure of footsteps. Simone's heart sped. There was definitely someone else in the house.

She grabbed a foam bat from the corner of her room, tiptoed to the doorway and peered out. Nothing. Had she imagined it?

She crept into the hall toward the kitchen.

Suddenly, she felt a presence to her left. She spun to face the staircase and there stood a tall, thin man with short, black hair and eyes so dark they had no whites―as though they weren't eyes at all. His skin was the color of granite and he wore a casual, stylish, dark grey suit with no shoes. He was like a shadow.

He didn't move even the slightest muscle as he stared down at her with piqued interest.

"Hello," he called plainly.

"Stay back!" She swung her bat wildly―just so he would know she was serious―and bolted toward the front door.

Simone fumbled with the locks. Why were there so many? She looked back. But no one was there. The staircase was darkness-free.

She leaned against the door, gasping for breath as she looked around. Had her boredom become so intense that she was imagining things?

All the same, she thought she should go to a neighbor for help. But she didn't really know her neighbors―and from what she had seen of them, they were scarier than the dark man on the stairway. It was Los Angeles after all.

She crept back toward the stairs. Still nothing. No sign of the man whatsoever. Just a still room. Perhaps it was the sugar? Too much wasn't good, but causing hallucinations? That was new…

"You shouldn't leave the bag open like this," a voice called from the kitchen.

She turned so fast her neck muscles twinged. Simone fumbled with the bat before brandishing it at the dark intruder―who was now leaning against the kitchen counter popping cookies into his mouth.

"Your snacks will go stale," he scolded between bites.

"Why are you here?!" she yelled, hoping she sounded even the slightest bit formidable.

"Why are you here?!" He replied pointedly, as though she were the one trespassing.

She heard a car in the driveway. Waves of relief washed over her.

"I'll see you around." The man smiled at her. He seemed entirely genuine―aside from his breaking and entering. Although, looking around, there wasn't much sign of breaking. Strange…

Her parents were outside, talking on the step. She turned to the door. Odd. They had both come home at the same time.

She turned back to warn away the dark man, but he was nowhere to be seen. How had she not heard him leave?

She rushed to the kitchen window, searching for signs of him. But she found only an empty yard and the neon sign of the old hotel behind her house. The sign cast an eery glow in the dimming light, one that sent a strange chill down her spine.

"Darkness," she muttered curiously.

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	2. The Friend Who Wasn't In The Attic (2)

The Friend That Wasn't In the Attic (2)- World of Ithiria  
By April Wahlin  
Edited by Travis Noble

When I came home last night at three,  
The man was waiting there for me  
But when I looked around the hall,  
I couldn't see him there at all!

-Hughes Mearns

Simone stared out the kitchen window. The neon hotel sign in her backyard reminded her of the haunting encounter with the shadowy man. Darkness. It wasn't every day one had an intruder in their house, but it had been a few days since the incident. She should have gotten over it by now, right?

Yet, she had nothing else to occupy her mind. Her parents argued too much to pay her any attention. Even when she tried to tell them about the strange intruder, they ignored her. They probably thought she was crazy. Simone couldn't blame them, she wasn't entirely sure she had seen the shadowy man.

Simone tried to call one of her friends, just to have someone to talk to, but there was no answer. All of her school friends had stopped calling. Of course, it was summer break, naturally some of them would be away on family vacations, but why did they all have to go at once?

This had to be the worst summer of her life.

The sky darkened and shadows crawled along the backyard fence. The only positive about the end of such a boring day was night time programing and the hope of a better day tomorrow.

With a sigh, she grabbed her snacks, and headed to her room. Her parents were out for the night. Again. For how much they fought they sure went out enough. She wished they would take her with them every now and again. Even if she did have to listen to her mother's wailing—the woman cried at the drop of a hat. Someone on TV once called it 'the change.' Her mother had changed all right, but as far as she could figure, it just meant lots of tears and complaining about the weather.

Nearing her room, she heard the steps to the second floor creak loudly. She turned in time to catch the flash of a dark foot hurrying up the stairs.

Her heart raced. Had she really seen something? Or had she been thinking about the shadowy man so much that she was seeing things again?

Then came another loud creak from the second floor. Suddenly she felt as though something were calling her. Not in words. It was a feeling, a lost sort of feeling.

Nervously, she crept up the stairs. For a moment she thought about bringing her foam bat, but that hadn't done much good last time. She would just have to rely on her feet and run at the first sign of trouble.

The second floor was entirely empty, it felt as if no one had been there in a long time. Across the hall, the attic door creaked, summoning her attention. It stood open a crack. Strange. That door was never open. In fact, she was pretty sure her parents kept it locked.

Simone opened the door and looked up the thin stair leading into the attic. There came that lost feeling again. Slowly she ascended. Simone had never been in the attic before. Even as a kid it had always been locked up and forbidden.

Cresting the top stair, she couldn't see what all the fuss was about. There were nothing but cobwebs, a few pieces of old furniture, and there was a small window facing the backyard.

Why lock a door if there was nothing up there?

The ceiling was low and sloped up at the center of the great room. She walked to the little window and looked out. There, perfectly illuminated, stood the motel sign. She was about to turn when she noticed movement beneath the neon letters. There was something beneath it, multiple somethings in fact. Were they people or shadows? It was hard to tell in the dim light.

Bang!

Simone jumped in shock and turned, narrowly avoiding a bump to the head on the low ceiling. Across the room she saw a large wardrobe. Something had bumped it- Something had moved it. She took a deep breath and cautiously approached. Had a raccoon gotten into the attic somehow? Once more, Simone felt swamped with the lost feeling. It was stronger than ever now. She was nearly to the wardrobe-

"What brings you up here?" his voice called from behind her.

Immediately she turned and there he stood, casually leaning against the small attic window like he had been there the whole time. He could almost be mistaken for a shadow cast in the moonlight.

"Darkness—" she replied in shock.

"Darkness?" He smirked. "'Suppose I've been called worse."

A hundred questions flew through her mind. Where had he come from? Why was he in her attic?

Just then, the wardrobe shifted again.

Bang!

There was definitely something hiding behind it.

"You didn't answer my question," Darkness called, commanding her attention.

"What question?"

"What brings you up here?"

"I thought I heard something," she replied. Why was she explaining herself to him? He was the one in her house. "Wait, who are you? What are you doing up here?" she asked when—

Bang!

"I wouldn't," Darkness called as she turned to the furniture behind her. She could now see what had been making the noise.

Standing with its back against the large old dresser was a tall thin figure wholly unlike Darkness. This man, if you could call it that, was old, with thin scraggly hair and a tragic expression etched upon its semitranslucent face. The sad creature was a ghastly muted green-blue color normally reserved for toads. The creature stared deep into her eyes, as though trying to read her very thoughts.

She gasped in terror and chills ran down her spine. Before she could stop herself, the word burst from her mouth.

"Ghost!"

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	3. The Friend Who Wasn't In The Yard (3)

The Friend Who Wasn't in the Yard.

Last night I saw upon the stair,

There was a man who wasn't there,

He wasn't there again today

Oh, how I wish he'd go away...

-Hughes Mearns

Simone leapt back from the apparition before her. "Ghost!"

"Don't scream, you're going to upset it," Darkness sighed, leaning on the window sill looking perfectly calm with his back eyes and dark casual suit.

"I'm going to upset it?!" she nearly screamed back.

Slowly, Darkness approached the poltergeist, staring at the apparition indifferently.

The specter looked back and forth between Simone and Darkness like a trapped animal. Simone was about to ask what was happening when the translucent man suddenly looked at Darkness, began shaking his head, and backing away.

"Pity," Darkness sighed and stepped aside as the man ran for the small attic window.

Simone sidestepped quickly as the poltergeist dove straight through the closed window like it was nothing, leaving not even the slightest trace behind.

Simone ran for the window and looked out. There crouched in the yard was the ghostly figure. Standing up, it crossed the yard and passed through the fence without breaking stride. She squinted through the darkness at the neon hotel sign where the creature joined a group of figures much like itself.

With jaw agape, Simone turned, half expecting Darkness to have disappeared. But there he stood leaning against the wardrobe with his arms folded across his chest.

"I assume you have questions."

"Only about a thousand,' she replied. "What the heck just happened? What was that-"

"— That was a very sad and confused soul."

"It was a ghost!"

"Shhh," he told the raising a finger to his lips. "They don't like being called that."

"Excuse me?"

"They have feelings too. It's like calling you short. You need a better bedside manner. They'll never cross over if you yell at them like that."

"What? Cross over where? What are you talking about."

"Come on," he sighed and headed for the door. "Let's see if we can't undo some of the damage you've done."

"Hang on a minute. Why should I go anywhere with you?"

"Fine then. Stay here if you're going to be like that," he replied and was out the door.

Simone stood alone in the drafty attic trying to process all that had just happened. Who was this strange man and what creature had he brought into her house?

Hearing the lower footstep of the first floor creek, she quickly snapped out of it and headed out the door. She would never get answers if Darkness disappeared again.

"Wait!" she called, racing after him down the stairs, but there was no one in the house. Where had he gone?

She hurried into the kitchen. The back door was ajar, as if it had been left open for her.

She stepped outside, and her whole world seemed to shift. The sun should have set by now, yet now it was only a lighter shade of twilight. Suddenly she couldn't tell if the sun was coming up or going down. It had to be going down, right?

Across the yard, Darkness sat perched on the back fence.

"Come along then," he called impatiently and dropped off onto the other side.

Simone hurried to the fence and quickly scaled it. She'd never been very athletic, yet in her excitement, it seemed hardly a challenge.

At the top of the fence she paused and looked back. Her house seemed so dark and lonely. Feeling a strange indifference, she kicked her legs off the other side and dropped into a gravel lot riddled with weeds.

Standing, she brushed herself off and looked up to find Darkness waiting.

"Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?"

"Does it matter?" he scoffed. "Are you ready?"

"— I guess," she replied.

"That'll have to do," he sighed as though disappointed and headed down the gravel decline to the big neon motel sign.

As before, Simone saw figures milling about beneath it. Some stood staring at the sign, as though transfixed. Others focused intently on odd minuscule things like a rock or quarter that shimmered in the neon light. However, all of them had something in common, they were all sad and all semitranslucent. A strong feeling of loss came upon her and felt as though she might might faint.

Simone stared in wonder. "What are they doing?"

"Grasping at life," Darkness replied plainly. "It's an epidemic these days. Use to be people didn't cross because of longing for a loved one or some kind of revenge. Unresolved issues they called it, but now people hang on for useless things like greed. They cling to so many possessions in life that they can't bear to part with them in death. It's sad really, they cant take it with them."

"By cross do you mean, die? You're telling me they're dead, right?"

"Souls wandering around on their lonesome are often missing that key living factor, namely a body," he answered.

With that, Darkness began wandering through the crowd of ghastly figures, examining them one by one. Most ignored him. But three souls followed him through the crowd until he came back full circle to Simone.

"Only three?" he sighed disappointed. "I'll get the rest of you, just you wait!" he yelled at the crowd, but they paid him no mind.

Just then, a strange vaguely glowing handwritten sign on her back fence caught Simone's attention, 'Never Alone.'

Wandering out of the gravel, Darkness called to Simone. "Ok, come on then."

"Wait," she answered. "Where are we going now?"

He stopped a moment and turned to her. "You really don't know, do you?"

"Know what?"

Darkness sighed, hung his head, and continued on.

"Where are we going?" she asked again.

"To show you your destiny."


End file.
